The special lecture in commemoration of Professor Kurt Komarek was organized by IIASA and the Austrian Academy of Sciences and was held in the Festive Hall at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Keynote: On plants and carbon
About half of the dry matter of organisms consists of carbon (C). The biosphere contains roughly 700 billion tons of C, largely tied to cellulose, the most abundant biological substance on earth.
Forests store almost 90 % of the global biomass carbon reservoir. Carbon enters the biosphere by photosynthetic uptake of CO2, and it leaves the biosphere by respiration of all non-green tissue and heterotrophic organisms. The balance between these fluxes was close to zero, before humans started to manage the planet.
Now, humans release nearly 10 billion tons of carbon as CO2 every year by burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, almost half of this CO2 remains in the atmosphere, enhancing the green-house effect. Since plants can absorb CO2 and store C, there is a debate on whether plants can mitigate atmospheric CO2 enrichment. I will challenge these views, by recalling the basic rules of element ratios, the stoichiometry of life, and by emphasizing that fluxes of carbon (the carbon cycle) must not be confused with pools of carbon (carbon storage).
Photo Gallery
Program
Moderator: Gerhard Glatzel, Chair Austrian IIASA Commission
18:30 Welcome Remarks
- Dominik Hellsberg, 1. Violine; Clemens Hellsberg, 2. Violine and Benedikt Hellsberg, Violoncello; Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Konzert für zwei Violinen in d-Moll,
- BWV 1043, 2. Satz (Andante)
18:50 In Commemoration of Kurt Komarek
19:10 Kurt Komarek – a Life for Science
19:25 In Memoriam Kurt Komarek
- Dorsamy (Gansen) Pillay, National Research Foundation (NRF) of the Republic of South Africa, on behalf of the IIASA Governing Council
19:40 Keynote Lecture
- Christian Körner, Institute of Botany, University of Basel - On Plants and Carbon
20:30 Reception (Aula)
Gerhard Glatzel, Chair Austrian IIASA Commission on behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
To attend this event, please register by 30 May by sending an email to
IIASA Alumni: Kurt Komarek